![]() ![]() Mercifully, you do get to keep any gold you’ve collected, which is used to purchase permanent passive upgrades like an increased chance to avoid traps, additional life points, or a higher chance to find runestones. You can retrieve them if you manage to descend to the floor you perished on, but this can be a struggle. Like most games with rogue-like influences, Runestone Keeper will habitually make you forfeit most of your possessions. ![]() ![]() Inevitably, death will take possession of your brave warrior. All too often, you’ll need to kill them to take possession of the what’s under the adjacent cards. And you’ll need every option at your disposal, as monsters tend to take control of the areas around them. While that might seem like overkill at first, once you encounter foes with ranged attacks, you’ll appreciate have a toolset handy to take care of that crisis. Heroes are outfitted with two different loadouts. All you can do is make the best plan for facing randomness, and hope adversity doesn’t throw everything it has at you. Like any respectable adventure game, selection always surpass your current savings. While banking this away is always prudent, you’ll sporadically be temped to spend these, at say, fountains that reveal the position of monsters or traps. Similarly, you’ll earn soul points with every new grid block you uncover. You’ll often be forced into using items prematurely to make room for a new tool. With only a trio of slots, inventory management is fittingly tricky. While you’ll occasionally uncover new equipment for your character, defeated enemies also provide elevated rewards as well as the occasional key used to access the next floor. While you can evade many monsters early on, you’ll be underequipped later, as you sink deeper into Runestore’s floors. Smartly, decisions have long-term consequences. Another concern are enemies that gradually grow stronger with each passing turn. Later, you’ll encounter ranged monsters who aren’t as passive, and will strike you with each passive turn. Each creature behaves differently, and you’ll want to weight the benefit of acquiring experience points versus the potential for permadeath. Reveal a monster, and you’ll find a trio of stats: attach, health, and shield, helping you determine if you want to attack the foe immediately or potentially disregard the beast. Discover a trap and you’ll incur damage, first to your shielding and then a deduction to your life points. Play takes play on a 7×8 grid of cards, with one flipped over every turn. In keeping with table-table tradition, you do have to use your imagination with characters, since they’re rendered with a single, small portrait. It’s hard not a love a hero who attacks grow stronger for every corpse that litters a room. Personally, I bonded with Dellamorey, the crazed axe-wielder who resembled Tom Savini. Although you’re only able to select basic blonde adventuring hero “Guy” at first, nine other adventurers will eventually become unlocked at the game’s tavern. Largely, Runestone Keeper eschews narrative, meaning a character’s backdrop in largely defined by their stats, passive ability, and starting skill. For that, Runestone Keeper wants you to develop your approach through play, gleaning proficiency across repeated journeys. While useful for conveying some of the title’s interface-related decisions (ZL and RL are used with the combination of a face button to use inventory items or cast spells), don’t expect the sequence of lessons to impart any kind of strategy. Head into the 170MB download and you’ll be able to play through the game’s interactive tutorial. The Switch port of Blackfire Games’ Runestone Keeper does a competent job at paring an RPG down to its essential elements. Offering speedy interpretations of exploration, combat, and inventory management, these offer some of the thrills of their bigger brethren, while habitually stealing less than an hour from your day. ![]() As such, I rely on succinct tabletop-style diversions to deliver a dose of adventure. But the burden of affording these experience means that these epic RPGs must be organized around work schedules. Given a substantial investment of time, I’ll often feel a connection with party members, making victory blissful and tragedy especially heartfelt. I absolutely love 80+ hour role-playing games. Platform: Switch, previously on PC, Xbox One, mobile ![]()
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